Sunday, August 24, 2008

reversible reactions, when philosopher turns biochemist

This is going to be a bit random, but i'm about to get a bit personal.

So, before I started in political theory/philosophy, I was in love with chemistry. During my senior year of college, I switched from a biochemistry major to a political theory/science major. Totally disassociating with the chemistry between me and chemistry. Recently, i decided to go back and study the sciences and go into pre-med. Blogs, such as the following one, is the result...

So, I was studying the concept of denature/denaturization/denaturation, however the word gets declined, anyway. The concept was new to me, i don't remember ever studying it before, but then again, i don't think i've actually studied in my life before.

Denaturing a protein or nucleotide, means taking the subject and stripping it of it's complex form and letting it fall apart into it's simple form. So, with DNA, you're stripping the double-helix nature of DNA, and letting it become two random floating about strands, no longer functioning, it becomes, in essence coma-ed, a vegetable, alive yet dead.

I realized, being the philosophical geek that I am, that this applies to living human beings. When we are stripped of our complex natures, we're in essence dead. People are made complex for a reason, because it's their nature. Stripping them of their nature, is a denaturalization of their state of being. You might as well rip off their arms and legs, cripple their minds, and what not. Each individual human being is in a state of their own natural disposition, and changing their nature, denaturing them, is like neutering them, they no longer can function.

So, what is this random political theorist-slash-biochemist talking about? The fact that people react just like molecules do. They cannot be denatured, however situations, environments, catalysts can help them function faster, more efficiently, slow them down, ect. But once they are denatured, they lose purpose, they're literally just taking up space.

So, what is the process of denaturing, in biochemistry it's through the breaking of non-covalent bonds, such as ionic bonds, and hydrogen bonds. In human social life, what denatures? Well, honestly, if i knew, i wouldn't be the aspiring philosopher i want to be, since all i know is that i do not know everything. But what aids to the denaturing of human beings? Inhibitors... people who hold you back, whether physically or mentally. Being denatured is breaking the bonds that hold you together, cutting them, being forced to drown in the aftermath.

I hope no one denatures you. And in attempt for that not to happen, lets act as catalysts for people, reinforcing them, helping them, aiding them, rather than inhibiting them. Help them tap into their true nature, harnessing them for them, and letting that natural state of complication play out its God-given role.

\\// Peace

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bismillah

I'm not too sure about the nature of nucleotides but proteins also denature. But they also re-nature, that is, they can return to their original conformation no matter how complex it initially was.

The wisdom being that no matter how much life denatures you, your 'nature' will stay the same and that is why Allah sends trials to us with the guarantee that they will never break us but bend us in ways to show some of our strengths we have hidden from our own selves. And bring us back to a place where we can use those strengths.

Thats what I like about biochemistry.

supreem said...

subhannaAllah, after writing this post my dad came up to me (cuz i asked him a question on this subject) and explain the same exact thing :) like you said "the wisdom being that no matter how much life denatures you, your 'nature' will stay the same'

Mario Mustache said...

man...that post was so awesome man. i completely FELT it, subhanallah.

this is how i think too...because i am a chemistry major :P

dont get me started on how PV=nRT applies directly to human beings, or how all of us are tiny particles in a box and theres always a probability of finding us somewhere :)

i hate being denatured....

mashallah that post was great man!